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The Pleasure Gap

American Women and the Unfinished Sexual Revolution

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The Pleasure Gap

By: Katherine Rowland
Narrated by: Suzie Althens
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About this listen

American culture is more sexually liberal than ever. But compared to men, women's sexual pleasure has not grown: Up to 40 percent of American women experience the sexual malaise clinically known as low sexual desire. Between this low desire, muted pleasure, and experiencing sex in terms of labor rather than of lust, women by the millions are dissatisfied with their erotic lives.

For too long, this deficit has been explained in terms of women's biology, stress, and age. In The Pleasure Gap, Katherine Rowland rejects the idea that women should settle for diminished pleasure; instead, she argues women should take inequality in the bedroom as seriously as we take it in the workplace and understand its causes and effects. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with more than 100 women and dozens of sexual health professionals, Rowland shows that the pleasure gap is neither medical malady nor psychological condition but rather a result of our culture's troubled relationship with women's sexual expression. This provocative exploration of modern sexuality makes a case for closing the gap for good.

©2020 Katherine Rowland (P)2020 Seal Press
Gender Studies Human Sexuality Personal Development Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Social Sciences Sexual Health Health Mental Health

Critic reviews

"A joy to read, and an important conversation about our right to pleasure: how we fake and perform, instead of value our actual sensations, cutting ourselves off from our own sexual enjoyment, which is our birthright. No one should deny themselves pleasure, nor the pleasure of this book, and its inevitable aftermath in their lives." (Julie Holland, author of Moody Bitches: The Truth About the Drugs You're Taking, the Sleep You're Missing, the Sex You're Not Having, and What's Really Making You Crazy)

"In The Pleasure Gap, Katharine Rowland takes on a feminist issue that has not received the attention it deserves: the inequality between women and men in the fraught and intimate area of sexual pleasure. Well-written and deeply researched, this book illuminates a topic that has profound implications for women's personal happiness and well-being." (Elaine Tyler May, author of America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation)

"Tasteful and open-minded...Rowland skillfully synthesizes many different ideas and approaches, and encourages women to embrace a broader understanding of their own sexual desire as an ongoing process of self-discovery and self-assertion." (Publishers Weekly)

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I wish I had read this at 15 and I hope many, many young people do. A much needed and important book.

Give every human on earth a copy!

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This devastating book confronts the up-tightness and prejudice of our political and social institutions which holds back humanity from exploring a natural path to fulfilment and to spirituality.

Revealing, sensitive and inspiring.

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